Birth story - Simone and baby Jonah

Massive thanks to The Positive Birth Company and Siobhan Miller for teaching me how to remain calm!!

I was 40+4 on Tuesday this week and had been having pretty strong Braxton Hicks for a fair few weeks. I had a strange feeling that night would be the night and went to bed saying to my husband I felt something would happen soon.

I woke up at 1.50 wide awake and went to the toilet. A few minutes later I was struck with immediate, very powerful surges. They took me by surprise and I can only say that they immediately reminded me of what my transition / 9cm dilated phase felt like with my first labour. Full on!

I tried to breathe through each surge as they came - less than a minute apart from the start. I concentrated on counting my Up Breathing and telling myself that my 'surges were not more powerful than me, they are me' and that my body needed me to be relaxed.

I instinctively knew I was quite far on in labour very quickly - 10 mins after the surges started I asked my husband to call the MLU and my in-laws (they are 20 mins away and were on call to look after my 4year old Amelie).

By 2.30 am the surges had increased in strength and I was barely getting a break between them. I adopted an on all fours position on our bed. A few minutes later I felt a definite change in surges and I had an overwhelming urge to push. I told my husband Sam the baby was coming and he was told by the midwife he was speaking to on the phone to hang up and dial 999, which he did.

One push and the baby's head was born and a second and his body came out. Weirdly this stage felt the most natural and easiest stage so far - I knew my body and baby knew what to do. I didn't even think about down Breathing my body just took over and there was some definite mooing!

Sam was coached by the paramedics on the phone on how to catch baby and what to do straight after. He rubbed the baby and I heard him cry. And 5 minutes later 4 paramedics and a Community Midwife arrived. Such a relief!!

None of this was on our birth plan and it certainly won't be an experience we will forget anytime soon - least of all my mother in law who walked into our bedroom to let us know she had arrived to look after our daughter, to find me on all fours and my husband catching the baby!

Although it was very quick (less than an hour) and intense I felt completely in control all the way through. It is thanks to the digital pack and watching positive birth stories that I had the confidence to stay calm and not panic. I trusted my body knew what it was doing.

After the birth I did struggle to deliver the placenta and after a while trying at home with the paramedics I was taken by ambulance to hospital and it was manually removed by a doctor using gas and air. This in turn meant I suffered a tear too but it is healing well after stitches and I can honestly say I feel that overall the whole birth was positive. We came home 3pm Tuesday.

Women are incredible!! To all the ladies awaiting their new arrivals - trust your body and your own strength and practice that Up Breathing!